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I recently read a few articles about how addicted my generation is to technology. Everything from nomophobia (fear of not having your mobile phone with you), to the experiments done with students going mobile phone / TV / and computer-free for 24 hours or a week.

And the results were consistent around the world. People felt disconnected, anxious and often at a loss for what to do with themselves. One article described teens having anxiety attacks and failing to get through a whole day. There were definite withdrawal symptoms similar to drug cravings.

Personally, I’ve also felt the eerie feeling as though I was missing a limb when I’ve left my phone at home on a workday.

So, very simply, I’m probably just as bad as most of the students in the studies. But, being the perfectly capable person that I am, I was convinced I could get through a day without technology better than most. So my flatmate and I did a tech-free day.

24 hours without using smartphones or computers. Midnight Friday night till midnight Saturday night. And, just for fun, we scaled back the technology available to be used to only be things that have been around about 30 years ago. So the microwave was out, as were my soft contact lenses and electric guitar tuner etc.

I did still have my phone with me, for emergencies and in case my family called. My family had been allocated a specific ringtone so that I knew it was them.

Here are some of my learnings:

There are countless compulsions to turn to technology for entertainment throughout the day

You don’t realise how addicted you are to something till you try to go cold turkey.

I had repeated inclinations whenever I wasn’t doing something specific to grab my phone or my laptop. For example, apparently I have a strong urge to use technology (Netflix and Facebook) to decompress at the end of the day. It’s low-energy entertainment. I didn’t realise how strong this compulsion was until I was in a position where I “couldn’t” do it.
Wanting to grab my phone or laptop was also a thing that occurred first thing in the morning, or whenever we’d just finished cooking, or cleaning up, or eating, or any other discrete activity. Something was done, so you turn to your phone to see what is going on in the world. It happened A LOT.

Technology is also used as a utility a lot of the time

The one time I grabbed my phone and just started using it during the day was after Sarah had accidentally started using the microwave. She had forgotten the microwave was off-limits. I laughed, and made a sign for the microwave to remind us not to use it:
Having made the sign, I was amused and wanted to grab a quick photo of it for this blog post. I had whipped out my phone and was in the middle of unlocking it before I realised what had happened and stopped myself. The behaviour was just that ingrained.

What was interesting for me was that I didn’t feel guilty for almost using my phone as a camera because I’d been trying to use it in the aid of something practical, not as entertainment per se.

Similarly, later on in the day we went to look at some of the sights recommended in our area as recommended in Hidden Treasures of London by Michael McNay. It provides a very low-detail map of the area with the sights marked. So we needed a map with greater detail to find it. Normally this would involve a quick search on Google Maps or Citymapper.

Instead, we resorted to the tried-and-true London A-Z. (Our version was hilariously from 1995, but not too inaccurate!) Navigation is a little stressful when you don’t have a “You are here” icon, we found. 😉

Navigating with technology-free methods was ok, we got there without any major issues, but it’s far far more efficient with a phone. Similarly, one of our desired destinations was closed on Saturdays, which we would have found out from a quick Google search, had we been using a phone. We were left to just gaze in through the windows. In this case, I feel like not using technology had been a disservice to us because we hadn’t been using its potential utility.

So there was clearly a difference in my mind about whether I was using technology for entertainment or as a means to getting something else done.

We became far more efficient without the technological distractions

When you don’t have an excuse of “just checking your email quickly”, procrastination subsides dramatically. For example, usually, one of us would cook, and the other would eventually get around to cleaning up the dishes within an hour or two. Without a laptop or phone to turn to, that excuse vanished, and we just did things pretty much as soon as the need came up. Recycling went out, rooms got tidied, washing up happened and they all got done faster than they would have been done otherwise. We also left for our explorations far earlier than we might have done on another weekend day.

Communication anxiety is a thing, but perhaps it need not be for me

My phone was switched on and in my vicinity for most of the day. I was contactable, but chose not to look at or use my phone. Had my family called, I would have picked up. Had anyone else called or messaged me in another way, I would know, but not necessarily know who, or why. This may not have been the best way of conducting the experiment (Sarah had just switched off her phone). Foolishly, I had forgotten to mute all message notifications. So my phone occasionally buzzed from across the room.

This was reassuring in that it was nice people were still reaching out to me, but anxiety-inducing because it made me wonder whether people thought I was being rude for not responding.

As I lasted till midnight before looking to see who had messaged me and what about, I am now moderately confident that if I repeated the experiment, I would experience less anxiety. There had been nothing of particular note or urgency. And not a single phone call.

That being said, in today’s hyper-connected society, it’s interesting how compulsive it is to respond to people immediately, or at least find out who is messaging you. I looked forward to checking my phone at midnight. However, once I had seen who had messaged me and why, my anxieties were assuaged and I happily went to sleep without responding until the morning.

Being technologically-addicted is a completely socially-accepted behaviour

When out and about, catching the Tube back home you notice how many people are constantly on their phones. At work drinks when the conversation came to a lull, we all had our phones out, checking messages for a good minute before conversation resumed. I’m not judging it as good or bad, it just is as it is. It’s a comfortable thing you can rely on.

A man stood on the stairs blocking part of the way at the station, but because he was staring at his phone while doing so, it was acceptable. No one said anything. Should that be acceptable?

I did a lot more of what I wanted to do by cutting out technology

The day was a lot of fun, overall. We:

cooked

cleaned

went out exploring and saw bits of London we haven’t seen before

practiced musical instruments

read a lot

wrote a lot

figured out different ways to get things done with less technology involved

interacted with more people while out than we would otherwise

It was a very full day, and towards the end of it, I was pretty tired. Around 8 or 9pm, I started finding myself at a loose end, just craving a bit of mindless entertainment. I ended up picking up a book to read, but I had certainly wasn’t sure what to do with myself for a while. But compared to an average weekend day at home, this one was quite productive.

In fact, the day felt a lot longer. I had so much time to do what I wanted to do.

Binges happen

At midnight, I had a solid 20 mins of checking that everything was fine with the world before going to sleep. I felt far less anxious afterwards. Today, once I started responding to messages from yesterday, I had a few instances of getting sucked into the internet. Arguably this blog post is the continuation of doing technology-focussed things. But this brings me to my next point…

Consumption of vs creation of something using technology is quite different

One of my main take-aways from yesterday is that I think technology is better or worse for you depending on how it’s being used. When used as a utility, a means to help you do something (e.g. write something, find a recipe to cook, how to get somewhere, the tabs for a song that you want to play on a guitar), I think it’s a much better use.

Using technology as mindless entertainment is something I’m clearly guilty of, and going to try and reduce in future. It’s far far too easy to start doing it and not realise how long it’s been. If you’re creating something or doing something constructive, it’s more intense and I know I’ll naturally limit the time taken doing it. There’s only so many hours in a day I can spend writing or practicing guitar before I get mentally exhausted, for example. Netflix binges, however, can last far longer, and they’re much less constructive.

I am implementing more limits on technology

Another learning I think is important, is that I want to explictly plan in time for communicating with people digitally. A lot of people recommend only checking email every few hours at specified times, and while I’m not sure I can do that at work, I certainly want to apply this on weekends. So I’ll start bringing in messaging time-frames. Perhaps twice a day, e.g. at 9am and 6pm, unless it’s something urgent. But urgent things would probably be better done via a phonecall. This should help condense my “oh, I wonder if someone replied to my message” checks considerably and I should be more efficient at checking emails texts, Whatsapp, Messenger, and other apps all at once.

I will probably also allow for low-energy entertainment time, but only if I can’t think of a good non-technology-based way of entertaining myself first.

It comes down to me controlling my behaviour and making better choices

What I appreciated most about this experiment is the sense of control. It was like I was taking back my autonomy and not just giving in to urges to check things online one more time. I was honestly telling myself “no, I don’t want to do that now” whenever the inclination came up. Today, it’s become easier. I’m using technology to work for me again, rather than be a slave to its every beep and buzz.

As I’ve written this blog post, I’ve had my phone buzz a couple times. Firstly, I ignored it. Secondly, I then went in and switched off the visible/audible notifications for those apps. I will read them in a few hours when I feel like it’s time to check in with the world again. But writing has been much more efficient because I’m not multi-tasking and I don’t have any email or facebook windows open in the background. This alone is satisfying enough to continue this behaviour in the future.

I’ve also combined this with making a concerted effort to use technology in a constructive way whenever possible, rather than simply as entertainment. Having perpetually made resolutions to spend more time creating rather than consuming entertainment in the past, I now look forward to spending much more of my spare time being creative.

To my friends reading this: I apologise that I will probably be slower at responding to messages in future. If you want an immediate response, please call me. 🙂

Like this:

I’ll admit it, there are times when I am the most clueless tourist there ever was. But, as a rule, I don’t consider myself a tourist. I’m a traveller. I go places, I immerse myself into a location and try to coexist with the existing population. This means embodying the “When in Rome” spirit. In cities always on the go, such as New York City or London, this means walking quickly and being aware of the thoroughfare.

Unfortunately, many people do not do this when out and about in the world.

I was recently in Oxford Street’s Primark in London. That was my first mistake. Even to get in, there were people who were walking 3 abreast, ridiculously slowly. I should have realised this was a bad omen. Please, get out of my way.

I managed to overtake them once we were inside, but then I was faced with the amblers who stopped without notice to look at products beside the aisle. Or they weaved back and forth between the left and the right side of the walkway, preventing people behind them from passing. I grew frustrated and took a detour between racks of clothing to get to the escalator leading to the floor I needed. On the escalator, people blocked its entirety, instead of leaving the left side free for people to walk past, and spoke loudly of their new-found bargain-basement treasures. I excused myself and they let me through, grudgingly. Really? You’re the ones annoyed by me wanting to not spend more time in this hellhole?

Once at my destination, I grabbed what I needed and dashed to the check-outs… where I was greeted by a 20 person line ahead of me. Lesigh.The 2 sales assistants at the check-outs looked worn out and completely apathetic. Given their minimum-wage and unrewarding roles, I couldn’t really blame their attitudes. They were slow, but did things. However, the line seemed to be moving at a pace which makes political progress seem fast. I realised it was the people in line who weren’t paying attention to when the next check-out was available. A sale would be completed, the sales assistant would say “Next customer please”, and the people at the front of the line were often oblivious to this, needing to be beckoned a second, sometimes even a third time. Or they would just look up and not have any idea which counter to walk to. Come ON, let’s go, people!Watch what’s going on!

My blood started to boil when, having completed my purchase, a family (parents, pram, baby and two little ones) stood blocking the pathway to the door. Lemme out, lemme out, lemme out now! I can see you have to adjust your family and strap everyone in, but must you block the entire way??At every turn, more shoppers blocked my way completely oblivious and uncaring to their surroundings. They just saw shiny things and price tags.

I weaved in and out, and skirted around this obstacle course known as “shopping” and finally reached the door to the street. There, I breathed a sigh of relief that I had a metre of space in front of me. I fell into the pace of the pedestrians on the footpath. This was more tolerable. Until people walked out of stores in front of me, turned in my direction but kept talking to people behind them. Not surprisingly, they walked straight into me. LOOK where you’re going! If anyone tried doing that in a car, there’d be constant accidents and fatalities.

I’m generally such a chill person, but experiences like this make me wish many curses upon my fellow man.

As such, the general rules which apply to driving should also apply to high-pedestrian-traffic areas as well:

Watch where you’re going.

If you need to stop while walking somewhere, find a place on the side of the thoroughfare where you can pause to answer your phone, check the map or dig out your metro card, ie DON’T BLOCK THE TICKET GATE, PATHWAY OR STAIRS.

Don’t block the entire walkway. This means leave space on the side for people going in the opposite direction to pass by, or for people wanting to overtake to use.

Be aware of the people around you, and roughly what their intentions are.

Stick, roughly, to the side of the pathway which reflects the side of the road that people drive on. Eg on the right in the US, left in the UK.

If you are waiting for a space to open up for you to move into (eg a sales counter), watch what’s going on. Imagine what would happen if all cars at traffic lights needed to be honked at when the light goes green. The world would be a much more irritating place.

Is this really so much to ask? Don’t make me wish you a horrible, fiery death just because you’re not paying attention to your surroundings. 😉